They are our friends, our role models and rivals. They define who we are, perhaps more than our parents. We grow up together. They get inside our heads.

What happens when we can’t get them out …?

Rachel runs away with her daughter, arriving unexpectedly at her childhood home. Jade spends more nights in the college art studio than she does in her own bedroom. The sudden reappearance of Josh’s mother forces him to take a hard look at his life. Now, all three of them must confront the truth about their childhood, as its impact on their adult lives is revealed.

Told with honesty – and humour – Broken Branches reveals secrets, lies, family dynamics … and the resilience to survive. Produced by CreateTruth Productions in Association with Workman Arts, the award-winning multi-disciplinary arts and mental health organization, Broken Branches starts a long-overdue conversation, shedding light on an important yet silent issue: sibling abuse.

By making the invisible visible, their stories will forever change the way we see sibling relationships.

Retrospect is a chaotic puzzle of an unreliable narrator’s memories, anarchic bursts of punk music, sporadic and shredded timeline. And yet, in the heart of the story are Mette and her so-called ‘perfect’ nuclear family. Mette (Circé Lethem) is a domestic violence support worker, and the film starts with her intervening in a violent and abusive altercation involving a strange young couple on vacation. It then jumps to a family dinner where Mette confronts her husband, who clearly doesn’t equate the importance of her career to his. After this uncomfortable scene, back to the future and Mette in the hospital following a catastrophic accident. She’s now in a wheelchair and has no recollection of preceding events. Gradually, Mette starts remembering how she invited Lee (Lien Wildemeersch), a client, to escape an abusive partner by moving in. The arrangement soon explodes, Mette’s flashbacks offering only vague clues to the calamity. But who is really to blame for Mette’s downfall?

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Workman Arts would like to acknowledge the Indigenous land on which we are presently
located; Toronto comes from the Kanien’kéha word Tkaronto, which can be translated as “where the trees meet
the water.” It is part of traditional territories of many nations: the Huron Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and
the Anishinaabe and the Mississaugas of the New Credit.

Workman Arts recognizes this is an ongoing dialogue; we attempt to honour the histories
of this land by sharing our space with all people—those Indigenous to Turtle Island and those from all over
the world.